Lace, leisure and converstaion

Wednesday 23^rd April

Again we moved further north towards Alencon to visit the Lace Museum (thanks Kate). In Alencon they make needle point lace which is quite different to bobbin lace. They have established a workshop in Alencon to keep the art alive. We watched a video on the making of a piece of lace – 350 hours can go into a 4 inch square piece of lace. The ladies train for 10 years to be proficient at the art. We took a peek through the window to watch them at work – you think it would be great to be able to sit all day and sew but I don’t think I’d feel that way if all I had to show for it was ½ inch of lace.

A couple of photos of just some of the Alencon lace.

We also visited the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Alencon. This was a very impressive church from the outside and lovely inside but the most impressive thing was that they had signs all through the church in both French and English.

Basilica of Notre-Dame in Alencon.

The next place we went to was St Cenerai de Gerei which is one of the prettiest villages in France (again, thanks Kate). This lived up to its reputation as we stood in the middle of the main street and took a few photos. The best though was the view down into the village and the river from behind the church. The church was also something to see and dated back to 893 or thereabouts. We had coffee in this town and the coffee shop was run by a Scottish lady and her husband. Great to have a long conversation with someone other than each other. 

The main road junction in St Cenerai de Gerei.

Many, many years ago some bees began nesting
in this hole in the church wall and they return every year.
They are now 'part' of the church.

Inside the church at St Cenerai de Gerai.

Finally we ended up at our B&B for the night outside a little town called Pre en Pail. We had minimal direction on how to find the place and eventually fell onto the right road and there it was. Our hosts for the night were David and Allison, an English couple, and after dinner we sat and chatted with them for a while. Funny thing was they had another group of Australians staying there and the lady was from Kyabram. Small world!

Our B&B - les Hautes Loignieres.